"The primary merit for the picture is to be a feast for the eyes." Delacroix
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
- Steve Jobs
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand." –Dr. Albert Einstein "Wonder is comes from the awareness of ignorance of religious mass"

The magic of the craft has opened for me a world in which I shall confront, within two hours, the black dragons and the crowned crests of a coma of blue lightnings, and when night has fallen I, delivered, shall read my course in the starts.

I don't understand these people anymore, that travel the commuter-trains to their dormitory towns. These people that call themselves human, but, by a pressure they do not feel, are forced to do their work like ants. With what do they fill their time when they are free of work on their silly little Sundays?
I am very fortunate in my profession. I feel like a farmer, with the airstrips as my fields. Those that have once tasted this kind of fare will not forget it ever. Not so, my friends? It is not a question of living dangerously. That formula is too arrogant, too presumptuous. I don't care much for bull-fighters. It's not the danger I love. I know what I love. It is life itself.

Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret designed and built the Villa Savoye residence in 1931. It contains all the points of Corbusier's ideal modern structure and still stands on the outskirts of Paris. The five tenents of the international style are:

Pilotis columns elevate the building above the earth so that garden outdoor space can extend beneath.

Gardens and terraces on the roof make an otherwise useless space functional.

Columns support the structure so that walls can freely be placed anywhere on the floor plan

Ribbon windows extend horizontally to illuminate and ventilate the interior

Exterior facades are free from bearing loads to open up design considerations

White surfaces were another trademark of modernists. Strict adherence to these tenets caused architectural disasters, such as the thousands killed in African colonies because their pilotis structures toppled from earthquakes. But Corbusier carefully molded this house within its context. Openings were positioned to capture solar gain. The plan was formed from the Golden mean and positioned to accommodate views of the countryside. The new automobile was considered as the method of approach. Ramps led up from the servant's quarters on the ground floor to living quarters, and then up to the roof. Winding stairs are likewise positioned carefully. Timber, masonry, and metal textures were carefully chosen for detailing. Windows become dominant in some places and walls only used to shade too much direct sun.

If the residence looks more like an office building than a house, that's because the Villa Savoye became a model for working structures rather than houses. Some points have been lost, like the rooftop solarium, but the ground-floor garage, ribbon windows, open plan, and rational approach has been embraced in many kinds of structures.

2011. május 29., vasárnap

3DReid is currently working on the £100 million low-energy, highly sustainable new headquarters for the Co-operative Group in Manchester city centre. Constructed by UK-based construction group BAM, the structure features 16 floors above ground that rises to a height of 72.5 metres. There are 12 distinct Co-operative business that are to be accommodated within the new headquarters building, with the current premises spread across 8 separate buildings and a total of 65 floors.

The building is designed around three cores set at the corners of an equilateral triangle with the office space arranged in blocks between each of them and an atrium filling much of the middle of the scheme. Convex curves along the main sides combined curving corners bend the outside of the building helping it move away from a precise triangular shape to something a bit more organic in appearance.

On the upper levels from floor nine, a large portion of the building has been sliced diagonally away as if it was an egg cut in half with a ring of light bronze cladding separating the inside from the outside. The advantage of this is that the upper floors reveal stepped terraces and aluminium framed glazing that shield the atrium from the elements providing copious amounts of outside space. Source 3dreid

Casa Batlló is one of the two great buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi on Passeig de Gracia, the other being La Pedrera. From the outside the façade of Casa Batlló looks like it has been made from skulls and bones. The “Skulls” are in fact balconies and the “bones” are supporting pillars. The stone façade is decorated with colored glass fragments, ceramic circles, and mask-shaped balconies.
Gaudi used colours and shapes found in marine life as inspiration for his creativity in this building e.g. the colours chosen for the façade are those found in natural coral. Thebuilding was designed by Gaudi for Josep Batlló, a wealthy aristocrat, as an upmarket home. Señor Batlló lived in the lower two floors with his family and the upper floorswere rented out as apartments. This building is a stunning and original work and well worth the visit. If you decide to take a look around inside you will learn how much attention to detail Gaudi spent on his designs thinking about such things as varyingwindow size depending on how high the window was from the top of the building. In this way he could ensure uniform lighting conditions in each room of the house.

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trying to escape the emotional and spiritual limitations of their lifestyle

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